The Hut People
hut people accordion percussion
Reviews
Home Is Where The Hut Is ( Fellside FECD228 )
The Hut People - before we start any speculations about obcsure tribes and world music - are Sam Pirt and Gary Hammond. They are The Hut People because they like huts!
The album features Sam's dextrous accordion playing, enhanced by Gary's inventive percussion the list of which will no doubt send you to a musical dictionary in a desperate attempt to find exactly what is making that particular sound. The duo have been together for a couple of years and both have deep roots in folk music. Their eclectic approach is clearly demonstrated in the album's 13 tracks. Here is music from Scandinavia to Louisiana, Portugal to The Shetlands, some traditional, some contemporary. With a combination of autobiographical zeal and academic precisions, the sourcing of each track ( if not always its accurate title ) is clearly recorded in the notes.
This is an album of textures and immensely considered subtletly, it ranges from the tenderly wistful and evocative to pulsating rhythmic dance. The duo's enthusiasm is evident in their playing throughout.
Most of the CD features music with overseas origins, so it's perhaps worth focusing on the two traditional British pieces. Da Day Dawn is the well-known New Year's evocation and walk-on song of the Papa Stour Dancers. The version here is the only track to feature Sam solo, delivering a performance laced with haunting darkness and the sound of midnight frost. In complete contrast, the track is preceded by Princess Royal, a Morris tune of extreme familiarity ( though, as usual, the notes provide some surprising alternative background ). As the track begins, one feels on safe ground.... until a descending run takes it in totally unexpected directions... a Samba which then acquires a reggae backbeat.
The track typifies the album's combination of respect for the music while still having fun with it. A remarkable debut, every hut should have one.
Nigel Schofield - The Living Tradition
Home Is Where The Hut Is ( Fellside FECD228 0
HUT PEOPLE – Home Is Where The Hut Is (Fellside Recordings FECD228)
Ah, that’s more like it something a little different from the ‘folk’ world. Paul Adams should be well chuffed with this recording on his tremendous Fellside label. For it is he who once again takes a leap of faith much as he did with Boden & Spears. This new pairing of Sam Pirt (squeezeboxes) and Gary Hammond (all things percussive) is a real breath of bellows driven air starting with the jaunty melody “Basque” which sets the pace of the album nicely. Following with the gorgeous sound of frame drum/thunder drum buoying the elegantly flowing tune “Morfars” this sound could become seriously addictive in a hypnotic kind of way. In my mind’s eye you could see the arrangement being used as the pivotal role in leading a colourful procession for celebrations such as May Day etc. By the fourth track the “Happy One-Step” we’ve moved into Cajun country and a triangle led rhythm bringing back fond memories of Bill Caddick. This proves the adage that a good tune will always stand on its own merits whoever performs it. There is some seriously rocking stuff on this little silver disk and some great tunes that will undoubtedly find their way into other bands repertoires. If you do hear them performed by others (and there’s no finer accolade) you can say you heard it here first. For copies of the CD which won’t be available until 25th January 2010 contact http://www.fellside.com/ or for further information on the duo check out www.myspace.com/thehutpeople
PETE FYFE
the bright young folk review
The Hut People, named for the hut in which their early jamming sessions took place in 2008 are accordion/percussion duo Sam Pirt and Gary Hammond. Accordionist Sam Pirt has been active on the folk scene for many years, winning the Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 1999 with ‘422’, while Gary Hammond has recently moved into folk music after 12 years with ‘The Beautiful South’ and a long list of world music and jazz collaborations.
Their debut album, ‘Home is Where the Hut Is’ is a really interesting combination of British, Nordic and European folk with world music influenced percussion. The steady core of the album is Pirt’s excellent accordion technique which is layered with Hammond’s enormous range of percussion instruments from around the world, two of the more unusual examples being the ‘Helix Bowl’ and ‘Static Whip’. Not one to be left out, Pirt also weighs in with foot-percussion on some of the tracks.
I found this to be an album that very much rewarded repeat listening, with a lot of subtlety and sustained interest. Well worth buying and spending some time with.
The Hut People - Home Is Where The Hut Is (Fellside)
The Hut People is a relatively new outfit pairing just two (but they make a sound big enough for many more!) virtuoso musicians Sam Pirt (accordion) and Gary Hammond (percussion). Both names should be familiar from other contexts - Sam initially as a member of The Pack, then a key driving force in the band 422 who won a BBC Young Folk Award as long as ten years ago, and Gary as a jazz and world music specialist who then spent 12 years in the pop sphere with The Beautiful South. But together: dynamite!
I might describe The Hut People as a very "hut" property on the folk-world circuit. The first time I saw them perform live, around two years ago, they'd only been playing together a short time, but what an impression they made, with a very high wow factor. Their live presence was characterised by an enormous ebullience, an absolutely hyper off-the-scale level of sweaty hi-energy, and total (ok, 200%) commitment. Their talents are undoubtedly larger-than-life, and that distinctly in-yer-face quality is brilliantly conveyed on this their debut full-length CD; but any likely misgivings engendered by this are quickly dispelled simply because the two lads' musicianship comes across so naturally and infectiously - they're not showing off for the sake of it, but genuinely communicating their enthusiasm and desire to share the music with you. It's impossible to find fault - neither with the playing or the arrangements, which, though invariably attention-grabbing and ultra-busy, are also unstintingly ingenious and listener-friendly - nor with the selection of tunes, the sequence and the pacing of the menu. The tunes originate from all over the world stage (Shetland to Scandinavia, Brazil to Belgium), but even the near-ubiquitous strict-folky Princess Royal gets an invigorating Latino-Caribbean-style makeover. The common denominator is that each and every tune sounds great fun to play! It's a particularly happy disc, moving from a cute introductory Basque and a thunderous schottis Morfars to the cajun Happy One Step and several tunes from Helsinki (including, inevitably, one to "Finnish" the disc in resounding style!).
There are times when you feel that Gary's throwing the proverbial kitchen sink into the recorded mix in an attempt to compensate for the true "live" dimension, but the sheer physicality of the performances wins you over every time, even on record. And sure – though at the risk of sounding mildly im-pirt-inent (sorry, couldn't resist that!) - it's possible to tire of the unyielding timbre of the accordion (even if Sam does bring four different members of the family into play), simply because it can't avoid being used as sole lead/melody instrument over the disc's 50-minute timespan, and this is bound to give rise to a certain homogeneity even considering the immense variety of percussive effects bestowed on the texture by Gary. So I guess all I'm inferring here is that this may not be a disc to satisfy everyone. But at the same time it proves pretty hard to resist these guys.
David Kidman January 2010 NetRhythms.co.uk
Review from The English Dance Society Spring 2010
The Hut People is accordion and percussion duo
Sam Pirt and former The Beautiful South
percussionist, Gary Hammond. The rather
cringeworthy, throwaway album title mustn’t put you
off: this is a lively album of tunes from around the
world, made to stand out from the crowd by the
varied and unexpected percussion. Hammond is a
self-confessed percussion collector and boasts an
assortment which is 400 pieces strong, so it is not
surprising that a great deal of percussion is
employed here: some you will be familiar with, such
as cajon, washboard, triangle and congas, and some
you may well not, like the spring guiro, zabumba,
darbuka and crotal bell.
A tune from Brazil sits alongside one from
Louisiana, Finland and Canada, all fluidly led by
Pirt’s accordion. And there is little need for vocals –
‘songs’ such as ‘Butter’ swell and spit out the words
via the accordion just as a singer would.
And if there is a tune you recognise, it won’t be
long before it’s given a more cosmopolitan groove,
such as ‘Princess Royal’ and her new Latin
overcoat.
www.fellside.com
Sophie Parkes
R2 ( RocknReel ) March/April issue 2010-Roots section
Folk music has thrown up some interesting musical combinations in recent years and, while the idea of a duo consisting of an accordionist and a percussionist might not sound too promising on paper, it actually turns out to be one of the more interesting and entertaining ones. It helps, of course, that the accordionist in question is Sam Pirt of award-winning band 422 and that the percussionist is Gary Hammond who's spent 12 year's recording and touring with The Beautiful South.
There are several reasons why this album works so well, and the fact that they're exceptional musicians who appear to be telepathically linked is just one of them.Among the others is an adventurous choice of material from the traditions of North and South America,Scandinavia,South West Europe and the UK, combined with an equally wide-ranging approach to instrumentation, as on the dramatic ' Kourtaneen ' where Sam's plaintive accordion is underpinned by the repetitiveness of Gary's surdo ( samba drum ).
Whatever their origins, The Hut People put their unique spin on these tunes to create music that's in turn dramatic, joyous and hypnotically beguiling, and which stays with you long after the album has finished playing.
Dave Haslam
FROOTS REVIEW APRIL 2010
Accordion and Percussion go global. The Hut People are award-winning young squeezebox whizz Sam Pirt and basher of all things percussive Gary Hammond. Together this Hull-based duo create a refreshingly straightforward combination of folk and world sounds, drawing on tunes from around the globe and giving them interesting little twists, often based around Gary's choice of percussion instrument. So the jaunty Cajun tune Happy One Step features Spanish cajon whilst the folk standard Princess Royal gets a latin twist with a whole battery of cuban percussion.
Such musical chutzpah can be a recipe for awkwardness, but here it sounds unforced and just right. Other highspots include the opening Basque tune, a beautiful Finnish piece written by Varttina's accordionist and the charming Butter appropriated from the Canadian band Accordion Crimes. In truth there's a lot of charm on display here, generated from the obvious rapport these two musician's possess. There's no showing off here, no grandstanding, just a couple of fine players sharing an open approach, a sense of fun and a love of making music.
Jamie Renton
The Hut People "Home is where the hut is" Review from German internet site "Folkworld"
Label: Fellside; FECD228; 2010
The Hut People is an English duo with Sam Pirt on accordion and Gary Hammond on percussion. The duo was formed only two years ago and now their debut album is released on the Fellside label. They play tunes from all over the world, from Cajun to Canadian, but with a focus on Finland. The opening track Happy one step is such a happy song that even I feel my depression vanish within a few seconds. Very different is the second song Kuortaneen from Finland, written by the Varttina accordionist Markku Lepisto. The Hut People is doing a great job here, strong percussion bringing a mystic mood and Pirt is playing a wonderful piece of accordion . Back to happiness in La gran noticia and they play a wonderful version of Lepisto’s Lansiranta. Don’t I know this melody from Sharon Shannon as well? Or am I mistaken? With Princess royal they prove to be excellent players of Irish traditions as well. The album ends with a composition of that other great Finnish accordion player, Kaleniemi. A powerful end of a wonderful album that took me by surprise. I did not expect an album with such a variation in styles, well played and with the right atmosphere.
www.thehutpeople.co.uk
Eelco Schilder
This is about as eclectic a range of music as you could wish to find: From Finland to Brazil and all stops in between, Sam Pirt (the piano box man from the band 422) plays various large accordions - we're talking 96 and 120 bass here, with cunning switches on top you can nudge with your chin - while Gary Hammond (erstwhile jazzer and member of The Beautiful South) plays all sorts of percussion. And I mean all sorts: never mind the obvious things like tambourines, djembes, congers and triangles, this chap also does zabumba, red cyclops, caxixi, static whip and cabasa amongst others.
Starting with a lively Basque tune, they take us through Finnish schottisches, Brazilian song tunes, a couple of Canadian pieces, a bit of morris and a does of Parisian cafe waltz. Cajun afficionados will probably recognise Demis McGhee and Sady Courville's "Happy One-Step", though somewhat evolved from the original, while "Princess Royal" gets a quirly Latin treatment. "Napoleon Crossing the Rhine" becomes a stately march and everything is rounded off with a Finnish Tune from an outfit called The Helsinki Melodeon Ladies in which Gary Hammond shakes and rattles just about everything in sight.
The whole effect is a sort of Simon Jeffes meets Nana Vasconcelos - quirky, listenable and fun.